[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 67 (Friday, May 22, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E939]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       VMI MAKES THE RIGHT MOVES

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                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 21, 1998

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member highly commends this May 19, 
1998, Omaha World-Herald editorial on the Virginia Military Institute 
to his colleagues. The Virginia Military Institute is to be 
complimented for the successful integration of female cadets into an 
institution that had been a traditional male bastion until the rending 
of a 1996 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The Virginia Military Institute 
has been successful because of its sincere effort to promote co-
educational programs that would foster the positive acceptance and 
inclusion of women into the institution, and for these reasons are 
again to be commended.

                       VMI Makes the Right Moves

       Virginia Military Institute, like The Citadel, had a long 
     and proud tradition of educating men and providing military 
     training and discipline. Both Virginia state colleges fought 
     against federal rules requiring them to admit women if they 
     wanted to continue getting public funding.
       Both schools fought the order in court. The U.S. Supreme 
     Court decided against VMI in 1996, as it had against The 
     Citadel in 1995. The ruling was not popular. VMI alumni 
     considered buying the college and making it into a private 
     institution rather than go co-ed.
       But when the ruling was issued and officials studied the 
     situation, they decided to take the honorable path. They not 
     only admitted women to the institute; they accommodated them.
       The women who went to the college last fall were held to 
     the same physical and mental standards as male students. They 
     were yelled at, given push-ups and forced marches, shorn of 
     their hair and sent through obstacle courses, all the while 
     carrying a full college course load.
       No quarter given. That is as it should be. Standards are 
     standards.
       But VMI was not grudging in its acceptance of co-education. 
     It actively recruited qualified women, winding up with 30 in 
     a class with 430 men. It held seminars on avoiding sexual 
     harassment--required seminars for cadets, faculty and staff.
       It hired a female assistant commandant and a female 
     admissions officer. It asked the nation's military academies, 
     which went co-ed 22 years ago, for advice. It brought in 
     female upperclassmen from military programs in Vermont and 
     Texas to act as big sisters for female freshmen.
       Seven of the women who enrolled in September quit before 
     finishing. But none cited sexual harassment or unfairness as 
     a reason for leaving. Considering that 74 male freshmen left, 
     too, the difference was not striking.
       VMI deserves credit, not only for doing the right thing, 
     but also for doing it the right way.

     

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